Wednesday, December 5, 2012

A GOOD PIECEBy Ramzy Baroud
Palestine Chronicle

".....Of course, there are reasons to permit a degree of hope — no thanks to the
very entity that guarded Israeli interests in the Occupied Territories for all
of these years. It is simply gratifying to witness the global show of solidarity
with the Palestinian struggle, one which has always existed, but was
overshadowed by futile “peace talks” and US-hegemony over all Middle Eastern
conflicts.

Moreover, the support that ‘Palestine’ has received at the UN must be
heartening, to say the least, for most Palestinians. The overwhelming support,
especially by Palestine’s traditional allies (most of humanity with few
exceptions) indicates that the US dominion, arm twisting and Israeli-US
propaganda were of little use after all.

However, that should not be misidentified as a real change of course in the
behavior of the PNA, which still lacks legal, political and especially moral
legitimacy among Palestinians, who are seeking tangible drive towards freedom,
not mere symbolic victories.
In fact, since the late 1970s, when the US, along with its arbitrators in the
Middle East, began co-opting the PLO leadership, it has been one symbolic
victory after another. When it emerged that Arafat was the PLO’s “strong-man” —
a major clue for US foreign policy specialists — a decade-long charade commenced.....

These events were the real preamble to the Oslo accords a few years later.
Since then, Palestinians have gained little aside from symbolic victories,
starting in 1988 when the UNGA “acknowledged” the Algiers proclamation. It then
voted to replace the reference to the “Palestine Liberation Organization” with
that of “Palestine”. More symbolic victories followed.

While the rally of Birzeit students seemed ill-prepared and unclear on its
objectives, those men and women should take comfort from the fact that they did
not sing and dance as their national project was about to be methodically
crushed by both Israel and the Palestinian leadership. It is strange how
“symbolic” and “moral” victories can usher many years of unmitigated
defeats."